The achievements must be kept in mind

Operation Protective Edge ended in an Israeli victory that dramatically changed the day-to-day reality in southern Israel -- and that is something no criticism in the Protective Edge report, no matter how harsh or how justified, will change.

At the end of the war, the media made it seem that the residents of the south did not want to return to their communities. But really, the opposite is true. In the past two years, Gaza periphery communities have enjoyed unprecedented demographic growth. Many families have left their homes in the center of Israel and relocated to the south. An infusion of new blood into small communities is a gift worth its weight in gold, and a shot of energy and encouragement. None of this would have happened -- it could not have happened -- if not for Operation Protective Edge. The families who live on the kibbutzim and towns adjacent to the Gaza border are the very image of victory in the war.

The crowds of families who flock to the western Negev on Saturdays to see the wildflowers bloom are also a victorious image. The prediction of then-IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz that for residents of the south, red would once again signify the anemones that bloom at this time of the year, rather than the Color Red alert that warns of incoming missiles and mortars, has also come true. I remember that when I was director of a community center in the Golan Heights, I organized a solidarity convoy of buses from the Golan to beleaguered Sderot to help people make their purchases in the shops and eat in the cafes that were collapsing for lack of business. Every year, for the Sderot Conference for Society, I would reserve a holiday cabin at Kibbutz Nir Am, which was then under regular rocket fire, and I would hear how the cabins were empty for rest of the year. That reality has changed unrecognizably, thanks to Protective Edge.

Sometimes, our memory is too short. We are quick to become accustomed to the good and suppress the bad. But lest we forget: For 14 years the Gaza Strip was a launching pad for rockets, operating nonstop. Countless small operations did not put an end to the rocket fire. Targeted killings didn't stop it, either. The many cease-fires and truces lasted, if at all, no more than a day or two, and usually only a few hours. After the disengagement from Gaza in the summer of 2005, the rocket fire increased, as did the rockets' range. Operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense didn't put an end to it. Only Protective Edge turned that frightening reality around.

There were plenty of things wrong with the operation on every level. We must not whitewash those. We have to probe the mistakes, study them, and learn our lesson. Even in the most successful war, mistakes are made that must be learned from, and learning from the successes is no less important so we can draw conclusions from them, too. The state comptroller's report on the Gaza tunnels will certainly point out defects that should be addressed seriously and studied. But we cannot let the trees obscure the forest. The overall picture is that of a significant victory that changed the situation on the ground and achieved the goals of the war.

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